1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to remote controllers and systems, and more particularly to remote controllers and systems capable of simultaneously providing voice input and speech recognition functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
For conventional remote control systems, users may operate a remote controller to control functions of a corresponding host, such as remotely turning on or off the main power of the host by pressing the key input on the remote controller. With the growth in multimedia and network applications, in addition to providing normal input functions, some remote controllers may further provide voice recognition related functions. It should be noted that the terms “voice” and “speech” are used interchangeably throughout the specification.
When using a remote controller with a speech recognition function, user may inform the remote host to turn on the speech recognition function via a speech recognition key configured on the remote controller and utilize a microphone speech recognition signal generated by the remote controller for recognition to obtain a control command corresponding to a recognized speech signal recognized by speech recognition software which is embedded on the remote host so as to control operation of the remote host.
In this implementation, however, when the speech input function is turned on and a user requires to perform other functions that require by other software to perform the microphone function, the voice input function software (e.g. network communication software, network instant messaging software, voice recording software or the likes) must be first turned off, before other voice input functions may be performed. Since the voice input key of the remote controller is only capable of turning on or off the voice input function, it is inconvenient for the user to switch back-and-forth between the microphone function and the voice input function.